THE National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has condemned what they see as continued and organized attacks against websites of alternative and mainstream news organizations.
In a statement, the NUJP cited a Feb. 7 article of the Manila Bulletin that reported the attacks on the official websites of CNN Philippines, Rappler, and Philstar.com. According to the same article, the attacks were carried out by a group calling itself Pinoy Vendetta ― a group that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict has publicly praised and has encouraged to take down more websites.
The websites of alternative media outfits Altermidya and Bulatlat.com have also been attacked for three consecutive days.
“Cyber censorship has no place in a democracy. It is deplorable that a publicly funded task force supports and promotes cyberattacks on news sites,” the NUJP statement reads in part.
It may be recalled that last year, a forensic investigation by Sweden-based Qurium Media Foundation shows that the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on alternative media websites have been linked to the Philippine Army, using the infrastructure of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
“No less than the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) confirmed that the IP address used for the unauthorized vulnerability scan was assigned to the Philippine Army,” the NUJP statement reads.
The union opined that while the recent attacks against the official websites of news organizations have yet to be investigated, the “timing and frequency raise suspicion” that these are well-funded operations and are politically motivated.
“We call on the DICT and the National Bureau of Investigation Cybercrime Division to look into these incidents, stop the cyber-attacks, identify and hold the perpetrators accountable,” the NUJP demanded. (CBC)
